Create Adobe 3D PDF directly from Autodesk 3D DWF

Luke Johnson

Yes – it can be done!  The program you need is called Adobe Acrobat 3D Version 8.  It is very hard to find a download link, as this program has been superseded (by what would seem to be less powerful version/s).  Look for a file called Acro3D80_efg.exe.  It can be installed as a trial.  Trust me, it is worth it.  This is one powerful piece of software.

  1. Download Adobe Acrobat 3D Version 8.
  2. Install (as a Trial, if you don’t have the serial).  It is functional for 30 days.
  3. Open DWF file – it will automatically convert to 3D PDF.
  4. Save as PDF file.

Here is one download link I found for this file:


http://te.hu/download/adobe/demo/acrobat/acro3D80_efg.zip

A set of hashes for the file are:
  File: Acro3D80_efg.exe
CRC-32: d0c02103
   MD4: 1524e7773eb8609d3433a5c7f997f0ad
   MD5: 3102b53090dc58350eca2c3e6b4fb17e
 SHA-1: f9488c4b6e79fedc9eec54edb5f0e991c7d8d21f

When you install Adobe Acrobat 3D Version 8, another program called Adobe Acrobat 3D Toolkit is also installed.  It is also seems to be quite powerful for converting 3D files and creating 3D PDFs.

You may also be interested interested in my previous post:
Create 3D PDF files from Autodesk Revit for free

Links that you may find useful with regard to Revit and 3D PDF

Post showing Acrobat newer versions lost the powerful functionality of Version 8:
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/299546?tstart=1

Adobe blog post about using 3D capture and Revit:
http://blogs.adobe.com/acrobatforaec/2007/06/how_to_get_autodesk_revit_mode.html

Original blog post that got me thinking about this:
http://revitoped.blogspot.com/2011/07/application-development-building-case.html

Adobe 3D version 8 update page:
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=3859

Original post that got me headed in the right direction:
http://www.rugsyd.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=623

Lysaght Bluescope Colorbond Autodesk Material Library

Luke Johnson

Package download link

You can open the BlueScope LYSAGHT.adsklib file in the Manage – Materials dialog in Revit.  This allows you to apply all of the nice, proper material properties to your Revit Material.

There is a step by step guide on how to use this at the following link:
Lysaght Designer Website – Powered by SteelSelect� – COLORBOND� steel Texture Library for Revit – LYSAGHT� Content

How to Set Altitude in Google Earth

Luke Johnson

Navigate to where you want to be and get as close as you can.

Start to create a placemark by clicking the pushpin icon.

In the placemark’s dialog box, click the “View” tab.

Change the number in the “Range” field to 500m.

Then believe it or not, click “Cancel” and you will see yourself zoom out to 500 meters altitude.

Google Earth’s placemark dialog box has the range setting in meters regardless of whether you have feet or meters set as your default in Tools –> Options. If you wanted exactly 500 feet, you would need to convert to meters and enter the meters value in the Range field.

via Appletom post at
How to Set Altitude in Google Earth

With regard to the datum of measurement for altitude, this statement from the above thread may be helpful:
Summary – when terrain is on, Google Earth’s eye altitude represents ASL (Above Sea Level). When terrain is off, Google Earth’s eye altitude represents AGL (Above Ground Level).

You can turn terrain on and off in Tools – Options.

There are actually 5 different ways that Google Earth measures altitude:
Clamped to ground
Clamped to sea floor
Relative to ground
Relative to sea floor
Absolute
For more information on these, check out the post at this link.

Tag Floor Area in Revit workaround

Luke Johnson

As you may have realised, you cannot add the Area parameter to a Floor Tag annotation.

Here is a workaround:

  1. Make a Floor Schedule with Area and Comments fields added.
  2. Filter By – Comments = the Comments of the Floor you want to tag (this needs to be a unique entry).
  3. Turn off Headers, Grids etc in the Schedule Appearance.
  4. Hide the Comments field in the Schedule.
  5. Rename the Schedule to something like:
    Floor TAG – Deck Area
  6. Drag and drop this Schedule a.k.a. Tag onto a Sheet, on top of the Floor in question.

OK, I understand that this is not the most manageable or elegant solution, but it may be useful in certain situations.

Database and Excel Linking tools for Revit 2012

Luke Johnson

Check out the following link:
WhiteFeet public downloads

Among other things, you will find documentation that covers the following tools:
Revit Element Tools
Revit Family Tools
Revit Parameter Tools
Revit Database Link
Revit Sheet Manager

The License Agreement can be found at:
http://www.whitefeet.com/License.htm

Here are some summaries of the individual tools (taken from the documentation):
Sheet Manager
Links to an Excel file or (less commonly) an Access database.  Based on this
data, it creates or updates sheets in Revit as a bulk editing process.  The tool
can also be used to export data, renumber sheets, and place views on sheets. 


Revit-Database Link
A relatively complex and highly developed program that can be the basis of a wide range of workflows.  It can connect to either an Access or a SQL Server database and synchronize data in both directions. 


Element Tools
This collection of smaller tools has been grouped together for convenience, but they serve different kinds of purposes.  These include:
Placing unplaced areas and rooms.
Creating views, adding tags, and exporting images.
Managing links.

Family Tools
These tools support working with families and working with Excel:
Exporting detailed information about families to Excel.
Importing parameter values from Excel to control families in support of a computational design
process.

Ever tried 3D modelling in AutoCAD?

Luke Johnson

David Light recommends it in this Tweet:

Freedom capabilities of #autocad 2012 are so cool, forms work very nicely with #revit & #vasari; & no i haven’t gone all soft on you 😉

via @davewlight David Light on
Twitter / @davewlight: Freedom capabilities of #a …

If you are interested in the Patch, Fillet, or Offset Edge tools, check out this video:

If you are interested in the spline form editing, check out the video at this link
http://download.autodesk.com/us/autocad/2011_featurevideos/autocad_3d_freeform_essentials_1044x828.html

Cuttable vs Non-cuttable Family Category Properties

Luke Johnson

One easy way to determine if a family Category is Cuttable is by looking in the Object Styles dialog box. If there is a gray box in the ‘Cut’ column, that Category is not cuttable. See image below (from 2012):

For some further info, you can check out these WikiHelp pages:
Cuttable Families – WikiHelp

Non-Cuttable Families – WikiHelp
However, it would seem that the above lists are not exhaustive…

Also, you can check out my previous post about the subject:
What Revit Wants: Cuttable vs Non-cuttable families

Building Windows 8 blog talks about user feedback and the Ribbon

Luke Johnson

Some of the principles employed by the Windows development team are no doubt similar to those faced by Autodesk, as they develop Revit.  Check out some of the quotes I found most interesting (and my thoughts in red):

We chose the ribbon mechanism, and to those that find that a flawed choice, there isn’t much we can do other than disagree. (Autodesk has also gone ‘All-In’ with the Ribbon)



While there are a lot of opinions, the one thing we know is that the satisfaction with our products that use the ribbon is much higher and the usage much broader and deeper. We also know a very small set of people remain unhappy. That was true in versions before the introduction of the Ribbon mechanism, though obviously for different reasons. It might be the case that no matter what we do, there will be a small set of people that are not satisfied? (I’m sure both Microsoft and Autodesk hope that it is a ‘small set’ that are dissatisfied with ‘most’ users satisfied, and not the opposite.)

above from
Reflecting on our first conversations (part 2) – Building Windows 8 – Site Home – MSDN Blogs

When we kicked off this blog, the premise was a dialogue – a two-way conversation about building Windows 8.  (I like the concept of using a blog or blogs to drive discussion and development of Revit.  I recommend ramping up the Mosaic Project, adding User ratings for blogs, Wish List submissions and polling.)
…
Windows 8 is about maintaining those roots while moving forward in a big and new way.
…
First, we’re talking about a product used by a billion people. No matter how you slice it, that is going to create a very, very large number of perspectives and customers to serve.
…
this blog is the “talk of the town” here in Redmond. 🙂

above from
Reflecting on our first conversations (part 1) – Building Windows 8 – Site Home – MSDN Blogs